Julien Dupuy gets six-month ban for eye-gouging

Julien Dupuy will miss the Six Nations after being banned for six months. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images

The Stade Français and France scrum-half Julien Dupuy will mark his 26th birthday tomorrow by starting a six-month ban, after being found guilty of gouging the Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris last week.

Dupuy is the highest-profile casualty of the International Rugby Board's crackdown on gouging. He will miss the Six Nations and France's summer tour, as he will not be free to play until 3 June.

Dupuy appeared in Dublin before Jeff Blackett, the Rugby Football Union's chief disciplinary officer, after being cited for making contact with Ferris's eye. Blackett determined that the offence was at the top level in terms of intent and banned him for 24 weeks. The maximum ban available was three years.

Blackett also heard the case of the Stade prop David Attoub, who was also cited for making contact with Ferris's eye. The case was adjourned until the week beginning 11 January, to allow further evidence to be gathered. Attoub is banned from playing. Blackett postponed the case because Stade contended that a photograph taken by a Dublin-based photographer which has been used in newspapers this week had been doctored to make it look as if Attoub was making contact with Ferris's eye. Blackett ordered that the shot be examined by an independent expert. If the photograph is ruled to be genuine, Attoub will face a longer ban than that given to Dupuy, who has the right to appeal.

Stade said this week that they intended to take disciplinary action against their two players, accusing them of damaging the image of the club in the British Isles. Dupuy and Attoub apologised for being "dumb and stupid" and said their actions had not been deliberate or premeditated.

Stade's president, Max Guazzini, hit out at Dupuy's ban. "It's excessive, very political and anti-French," he said. "[European Rugby Cup] wanted to make an example of a symbolic player of Stade Français and of the French team which has never had a disciplinary problem. It's not normal that a private organisation in Ireland prevents a club employee from working, from playing. It is we who pay him."

Dupuy is the third French player to be banned this week. Two were from Brive. That club's England fly-half, Andy Goode, who has had his appendix removed, said it was time French rugby cleaned itself up.

"It is a pity that this behaviour, which is still quite prevalent in the Top 14, has now carried through to the Heineken Cup where players will not go unpunished for foul play," he said. "France, it seems, is the only country in the world where players can get away with punching and, at times, other acts of foul play. The English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Italian teams know they cannot get away with that kind of behaviour, yet the French guys still take a chance…"

"Julien Dupuy has put his hand up and apologised… but there is no place for that kind of thing in rugby. French rugby has taken a bit of a knock and players will continue to overstep the mark until foul play is stamped out in France. What happened at the Brive game with London Irish last weekend was, I guess, typical French mentality with a few punches traded."